Facebook Has Made It Harder to See Local News. But There Are a Few Things You Can Do

Facebook recently announced that they have made some changes that will affect what you see in your feed.

In it’s effort to focus more on friends and family, you may have noticed a lot less “local news” in your “News Feed.” Interesting, right?

What does that mean to you? Fewer updates from ALL pages on Facebook that you follow – including media, local businesses, and causes you care about.

Our small and mighty team works very hard to bring the community the stories that matter, and to connect with readers on our Facebook page. SweetwaterNOW has spent a significant amount of time building our Facebook presence to be the largest in Southwest Wyoming because it has historically been such an important megaphone for us in terms of how some readers come to our site. But times are changing, and we have to change with them.

On the bright side, we’ve been ahead of this change for quite a while now and have already put some options in place. If you’d still like to see SweetwaterNOW posts on Facebook, there are some simple steps you can take.

Not a Facebook reader? Keep scrolling, because we have tips below that will help you, too, if you’re keen on staying up to date with what’s going on in Sweetwater County.

Here are some things you can do to make sure you don’t miss out on your local news.

5 Tips to Stay Plugged In

1. CHOOSE ‘SEE FIRST’

On the SweetwaterNOW Facebook page, click the “Following” button and make sure “See First” is selected.

If you do this, when we have posted breaking news or a recent story it will show up towards the top of your Facebook feed

You can do this from your desktop or a mobile device, following essentially the same steps. We’ve even made a quick video to show you how or you can see the image below.

Mark SweetwaterNOW as “See First” to see it at the top of your feed when there is recent news.

2. LOCAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX

Sign up for the SweetwaterNOW Wake-Up Call.

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3. RIGHT ON YOUR HOME SCREEN

Whether you are a Facebook user or not, this is a helpful tip if you enjoy local, community news in one click.

SweetwaterNOW has built their website to be “mobile first” so there is no need to ever download an app.

In just 4 steps, you can get our icon on your phone home screen at all times that will click to SweetwaterNOW.com

Here you see those easy steps on iOS, but similar steps on Android will do the same.

4. BOOKMARK OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

Like what you see there? Please comment and share our posts, which helps us get greater visibility.

The “bookmarks” menu appears at the top of the browser. On a Mac, the shortcut to create a bookmark is command+D from any website you like.

5. BOOKMARK THE WEBSITE

You can also put SweetwaterNOW’s Website in your “bookmarks bar” (Chrome) for easy access. It’s called “Favorites” on Safari and “Bookmarks Toolbar” on Firebox.

Bookmarking those pages can help you find our page with just one click.

When you’re saving your bookmark, just make sure to choose the location that works best for you – Facebook page, directly to the website, or if you’re really hardcore about local news like us – both!

If you’re a fan of SweetwaterNOW’s work, and would like to support us, please share our stories on social media. On Facebook, your comments, shares and likes will also help us increase visibility and engagement.

The good news is that we still have the largest Facebook following in Southwest Wyoming and that means the most organic reach. We were also the only regional news company invited to Facebook’s Journalism Project, so we have access to tools and information directly from Facebook as these changes happen.

As you can see below, we have more than double the audience of all other local media sources and consistently more than double their engagement combined. We focus solely on digital media and online news, and the numbers show the difference.

Screenshot directly from Facebook Insights

By following the steps we’ve lined out, you lessen the chance of missing breaking news or important information you normally see.